2020 ANNUAL REPORT VISION To create the world’s foremost centre for research, graduate training, and educational outreach in theoretical physics, uniting public and private partners, and the world’s best scientific minds, in a shared enterprise to achieve breakthroughs that will transform our future. Estelle Inack, Jason Iaconis, and Roger Melko, October 2019 CONTENTS Message from the Board Chair .............................................2 Message from the Institute Director ......................................3 How Perimeter Measures Up ................................................4 Research ...............................................................................6 Training ................................................................................26 Outreach ..............................................................................32 Our Future is Bright .............................................................38 Advancement ......................................................................40 Governance and Finance ....................................................44 Appendices .........................................................................51 This report covers the activities and finances of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics from August 1, 2019, to July 31, 2020. TODAY'S THEORETICAL PHYSICS IS TOMORROW'S TECHNOLOGY MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD CHAIR The coronavirus has made the past year very difficult. The loss transform epidemiology, finance and insurance, risk of loved ones and the economic, social, and emotional impact modelling, and many other branches of fundamental of physical distancing measures have touched everyone. science. I believe that Perimeter has been fortunate, and I want to Successes like these informed a recent report from the acknowledge the efforts by Director Rob Myers and his team Institute’s Scientific Advisory Committee, an oversight body to ensure above all else the safety of Perimeter’s employees, composed of eminent scientists from around the world. students, and visitors. “Perimeter is unique in the scientific landscape, Also, as you know, a fundamental aspect of the Perimeter with a forward-looking, innovative, collaborative and model is the extensive interaction among researchers and inclusive climate,” the Committee wrote. “It has greatly students. As you would expect, these types of interactions are raised Canada’s reputation in the field of high-level hard to achieve safely in our current pandemic environment. theoretical physics, and has shown a very high return on That said, Perimeter used a number of tools and a lot of government investment, and at a fast pace.” creativity to continue these interactions between researchers I am proud of this glowing report from some of the top physics from Perimeter and around the world, both safely and researchers around the world. I want to thank the Scientific effectively. The result is that a year that threatened to be very Advisory Committee and their Chair Gabriela González for their unproductive has produced or advanced a number of physics comments and the work behind this very extensive report. breakthroughs. Perimeter is a fundamental partner in the “Quantum Valley.” The Institute’s model of attracting the world’s best researchers Quantum Valley is our quantum innovation ecosystem that and enabling them to pursue their most ambitious ideas is supports and enables research and researchers as they drive paying off. Under Rob’s leadership, the Institute continues scientific breakthroughs and develop transformative quantum to move from strength to strength in quantum information technologies that are the basis for commercial products that science, as well as in the other major areas of theoretical change lives and build economies. physics. Our researchers set the global scientific agenda in many areas, as evidenced through their highly cited papers Perimeter’s activities, including those with commercialization and groundbreaking international collaborations. potential, along with the efforts at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, and at the Perimeter faculty continue to make many game-changing Quantum Valley Ideas Lab, combine to make the Quantum physics breakthroughs. Also, this year marked the Valley a global leader in both quantum research and in the advancement of some Perimeter projects with very exciting commercialization of transformative quantum technologies. We commercialization opportunities. A few of the developments I already have a number of quantum start-up companies in the want to acknowledge include the following: region, and we expect many more to be developed over the A team led by Roger Melko is collaborating with next few years and beyond. experimental physicists at Harvard University to improve I thank the Governments of Ontario and Canada, as well the testing and reliability of quantum simulations. Being as the foundations and donors who so generously support able to simulate quantum interactions opens the door the Institute and share our vision. The success of the large- to everything from creating new materials to developing scale public-private partnership at Perimeter not only enables new medicines. our exciting activities but also raises our national and global The visionary work by Will Percival came to fruition with brand, which has been an instrumental part of our ability to the release of the largest three-dimensional map of the attract top researchers to Perimeter from around the world. universe ever created. Through his work at the Extended In particular, I want to acknowledge the generous support of Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, Percival $10 million from the Riddell Family Foundation for Perimeter’s oversaw an ambitious initiative to measure more than Clay Riddell Centre for Quantum Matter. The research done 2 million galaxies and quasars for the project. by the Quantum Matter Centre will help develop exciting new quantum materials that will enable new approaches for I am excited about the Institute’s work, led by Robert everything from power grids to medical imaging. Spekkens, in “quantum causal inference.” This new field capitalizes on remarkable new insights from foundational In addition to our researchers, the Institute owes its success quantum theory to determine causal relationships to the leadership of the members of our Board, Finance and within highly complex data sets. It has the potential to Investment Committees, and Leadership Council. A special 2 | thanks this year to Amit Chakma, President Emeritus of The Institute will continue to make new breakthroughs that will Western University, who stepped down from the Board this give this country an edge for decades to come – accelerating year, and a warm welcome to Susan Baxter, Vice Chairman, our post-COVID economic recovery and preparing us for what Enterprise Strategic Client Group at Royal Bank of Canada, comes next. who recently joined us. I want to thank everyone who has shared my vision and Canada, and the rest of the world, will of course make contributed to the success of Perimeter to date. I also want it through the current pandemic. The power of science, to encourage you to continue your commitment to the future innovation, and human resilience, in my mind, assure this. success of this exciting organization. The best is yet to come! Although we will come out of this experience with both mental and emotional scars, I believe that we will also come away − Mike Lazaridis, O.C., O.Ont., FRS, FRSC from the experience with new wisdom and new resolve that Chair, Board of Directors will ensure future health, happiness, and success. MESSAGE FROM THE INSTITUTE DIRECTOR Perimeter Institute is a place with its eye on the future. 2020, and seminars from Perimeter and other institutions around the though, caught us by surprise. world. It’s called SciTalks.ca, and we hope it will be to physics talks what the free preprint server arXiv is to physics papers. In a way we were lucky: As theorists, we have no particle accelerators to tend to, no instruments to mind. When we I am so proud of how the Perimeter community adapted to became an online institution – which happened almost the pandemic – with resilience, creativity, and heart. We pulled overnight in March – our simulations and calculations could go together, and we are pulling through. on. While our chalkboards had to stand empty, our ideas could Perhaps the biggest lesson we can take from the pandemic is follow us home. that in a universe as big and unpredictable as ours, we don’t Some of our researchers offered their expertise to biomedical know what our challenges will be. It’s clearer than ever that we collaborations as part of the worldwide effort to combat should not let the horizon of our research be set by our current COVID-19. Research continued, including stunning new problems. We have to think further out, because the horizon of results in quantum matter, quantum simulation, field theory, our imagination is bigger than the horizon of our problems. and even foundational work on the nature of time itself. We For instance, we are beginning to imagine a new wave of learned new things about the universe, with major new work technologies made possible by a much deeper understanding from the Event Horizon Telescope and the CHIME telescope. of the quantum realm. This research is poised to change the Our master’s program, Perimeter Scholars International, went world. Perimeter prides itself on spotting these moments,